In line with the latest government guidance and directives, Portland Bird Observatory - including our bookshop and viewing terrace - will be closed for residential guests and day-visitors from Thursday 5th November to Wednesday 2nd December; in the light of the regulations permitting local travel to spend time or exercise outdoors, our car park will remain open during this period but we must request that only local members make use of this facility and when they do so they follow the government regulations concerning meeting others.
A nice bit of variety again today with another decent pulse of visible passage and one or two scarcities of note on the ground. The numbers were all overhead, with 3770 Wood Pigeons, 340 Goldfinches and 328 Chaffinches making up the bulk of the total at the Bill, where further variety included 7 Bramblings, 2 Merlins, a Golden Plover and a Woodlark; a Snow Bunting that dropped in at the Bill tip late in the day was one of the few grounded arrivals there. Movement elsewhere included 1790 Wood Pigeons, 10 Knot and a Goosander through at Ferrybridge and 17 Bramblings at High Angle Battery. The Rosy Starling remained at Easton, a Yellow-browed Warbler at Southwell was the first for a while and Black Redstarts remained at Church Ope Cove and Blacknor, whilst further up-island oddities that didn't linger or couldn't be refound included 1 or 2 Richard's Pipits and 3 Firecrests at the Grove and another Rosy Starling at Osprey Quay.
Snow Buntings have become very infrequent visitors to Portland in recent years so this afternoon's arrival at the Bill tip was a welcome little event © Martin Cade:
